Global Health

The goal of the Global Health Scholarly Concentration is to equip residents with the knowledge and skills to become physician-leaders in global health. Participation in this track will allow residents to understand the general principles related to the health of children in developing countries and how these principles apply to underserved populations in the United States.

Residents in this scholarly concentration will choose an international site they wish to work at for their call free elective months. These rotations take place during residents’ second and third years (6 weeks PGY2, 6 weeks PGY3).

The pediatric global health program at Stanford is intended for physicians interested in incorporating international work into their careers long term. This track is designed for residents that wish to work in low-resource environments, have a sustaining impact at their international site, and help close some of the health disparities seen in global health. It allows residents the opportunity to identify an overseas site in which they will invest their time and efforts during residency.

Residents work clinically at their chosen site, better understand the many issues impacting global health today, and pursue a scholarly project. The project can range from clinical / basic science research to education or be a service oriented project. The program has identified partnering sites with long standing relationships (Nepal, Brazil, Ecuador, Uganda, but residents may choose to work at a site they are invested in provided there is strong mentorship. For more information on the international sites and the Stanford/Packard Global Child Health Program click here. For more information about our mentors see the tabs below.

The Global Health scholarly concentration curriculum is based on the competency-based goals and objectives have been developed by the AAP Section on International Child Health working group on Pediatric Resident Education as well as the competency-based curriculum developed by the University of Minnesota.

Required for All Global Health Residents:

All residents in the Global Health Scholarly Concentration participate in the following:

Global Health Intensive 2 week course (PGY-2): “Global Health – Beyond Diseases and International Organizations,” is co-taught by Dr. Saraswati Kache and Dr. Cybele Renault each fall. Offered through the Stanford Center for Innovation in Global Health the 2-week course is required for all residents in the Global Health SC and is open to trainees in all sub-specialties. The course features lab work, group presentations, and lectures from faculty and experts throughout the Bay Area.

Global Health field work in single location (6 wks PGY-2, 6 wks PGY-3)

Journal Club

Quarterly Evening Sessions (4/year): Research dinners will be held as a forum where residents present their “Works in Progress” to their fellow residents, project mentor and Global Health SC leaders. During this forum, they will receive feedback and guidance on their projects. This is not an evaluative process. Rather, the goal is to amplify research efforts and use resident projects as a forum for teaching about study design and statistics, and to share challenges and solutions to common research hurdles.

Presentation of project at Department of Pediatrics Research Retreat

Required for All Pediatrics Residents

All Pediatrics residents participate in:

Scholarly Concentrations Half-Day Research Retreats (10 total)

Global Health Noon Conference (6/yr): This series consists of lectures showcasing the expertise of faculty and community in subjects ranging from under-five mortality to population genomics.

Residents as Teachers Noon Conference

Community Rotation (PGY-1): During this rotation, residents are introduced to the basic concepts of physician advocacy and patient engagement.

Legislative Advocacy Rotation (PGY-2, Urgent Care Rotation): During this rotation, residents gain skills in policy and media level advocacy by engaging with LPCH government and media relations officers and faculty engaged in advocacy activities. Residents pick a topic from a list of adolescent health issues and engage in policy and media activities related to this topic with letter writing, phone calls to legislators and the AAP or letters to the editor.

Quality and Performance Improvement Rotation (PGY-2): During this rotation, residents are exposed to leaders in quality and performance improvement at LPCH and participate in a longitudinal improvement project.

Teaching Seniors Rotation (PGY-3): During this rotation, residents learn how to be effective educators and learn critical skills in clinical teaching and feedback.

Morning Report

Grand Rounds

Optional:

Tropical Medicine Course (Spring, 2 wks)

Journal Club

An education session and group discussion held every other month. The focus of these discussions will be to address pertinent global health subject matters – either presently active global health issues, i.e. an epidemic, or discussion of other relevant global health topics. Residents will also have an opportunity to exchange scholarly concentration project ideas, concerns, roadblocks, and successes at these sessions.

contact information

Dr. Sarnquist has been researching prevention interventions for over 15 years. Her major area of interest is the implementation and evaluation of interventions to prevent gender-based violence and HIV. She currently has projects in Kenya and DRC, and has worked in the U.S. as well as Zimbabwe, Peru, Mexico, and Albania. Dr. Sarnquist also teaches an undergraduate course entitled “Global Child Health”.

Dr. Saraswati Kache is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care and has led the pediatric global health education efforts at Stanford since 2010. She has worked clinically and been an educator in critical care for local physicians and staff at multiple international locations. More Along with being involved with service and education oriented projects at our international partnering sites, her present research interest focuses on appropriate resuscitation of malnourished children that present in shock.

Global Health Mentors

Dr. Vinod (Vinny) K. Bhutani, graduate of the Armed Forces Medical College (India), is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine at the Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine. At the American Academy of Pediatrics, he was elected to the AAP Executive Committee the Section on Perinatal Pediatrics from District III, appointed to the Committee of Fetus and Newborn and the Subcommittee on Hyperbilirubinemia. Within the Programme for Global Paediatric Research, Dr. Bhutani launched the Global Prevent Kernicterus Network, serving as its Director. He serves as an advisory board of several NGOs for use to promote development, testing and implementation of affordable medical technologies for neonatal application. His heath-societal research interests include prevention of safe newborn care, jaundice-related newborn brain damage and ventilation induced respiratory injury through systems-approach, biotechnologies, biodesign of affordable medical devices and chemoprevention as well as development of low-cost, high quality strategies and health policies for global reduction of infant mortality and morbidities.

Gary L. Darmstadt, MD, MS, is Associate Dean for Maternal and Child Health, and Professor of Neonatal and Developmental Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Previously Dr. Darmstadt was Senior Fellow in the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), where he led a cross-foundation initiative on Women, Girls and Gender, assessing how addressing gender inequalities and empowering women and girls leads to improved gender equality as well as improved health and development outcomes. Prior to this role, he served as BMGF Director of Family Health, leading strategy development and implementation across nutrition, family planning and maternal, newborn and child health.)

Dr. Kache is a Clinical Associate Professor in the division of Pediatric Intensive Care and has led the pediatric global health clinical and education efforts at Stanford since 2010. Her work as a clinician and educator has taken her to Kenya, India, Indonesia, China, Nepal, and Bangladesh. She has collaborated closely established partner sites in Nepal and Bangladesh. In 2009 she helped to develop a curriculum and training program for intensive care medicine at Patan Hospital and helped establish the PICU and NICU there. Her present research interest focuses on appropriate resuscitation of malnourished children that present in shock.

Dr. LaBeaud devotes her efforts to better understanding the risk factors and long-term health consequences of arboviral infections, including Rift Valley fever, chikungunya, and dengue viruses. She also studies the effects of parasitic infections on vaccine responses, growth, and development in children. She has two large field projects ongoing in Kenya. As a physician-scientist, she splits her time between research and clinical practice including travel clinic experience. In addition to her medical training in pediatric infectious diseases she holds a masters degree in Clinical Research.

Dr. Khanna has a strong interest and dedication to, pediatric emergency care, medical education and issues of social justice both internationally and here in the United States. Her research and project work focuses on building sustainable training programs in pediatric emergency care in poorly-resourced countries. She also holds a law degree and has been focused on exploring the intersections between human rights and health.

Director of Research at the Center for Innovation in Global Health, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

Dr. Luby's research has focused on clarifying the burden of communicable diseases in low-income countries and developing and evaluating strategies to mitigate their impact. He is currently exploring the relationship between environmental degradation and disease burden in low income countries, with a view to developing and evaluating interventions. Dr. Luby previously led the Epidemiology Unit of the Community Health Sciences Department at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan and was Bangladesh Country Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Luby also directed the Centre for Communicable Diseases at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).

Dr. Luna-Fineman a pediatric hematologist oncologist with over twenty years of experience and leadership roles in the field. Her research interests include retinoblastoma, myelodysplastic syndromes, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, environmental exposures and epidemiology of childhood cancer in low-income countries. She is Chair of the Retinoblastoma Committee of AHOPCA (Central American Hematology/Oncology Association) and co-Chair of the Graduated-intensity Committee of PODC (Pediatric Oncology Developing Countries) at SIOP (International Society of Pediatric Oncology). Dr. Luna-Fineman is also a Medical Trustee of the international NGO, World Child Cancer. She is the coPI for the NIH funded study: A pilot study of biomass smoke and childhood leukemia.

Dr. Maldonado is a pediatrician and infectious disease expert. Dr. Maldonado’s research activities have included the epidemiology and prevention of viral infections such as rotavirus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio and pediatric HIV infection. In 1989, Dr. Maldonado received the Epidemic Intelligence Service Alumni Award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and she was inducted into the Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame at Stanford University in 2001. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the Society for Pediatric Research, the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American Public Health Association. r. Maldonado is a member of the HHS National Vaccine Advisory Committee and the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases (Red Book Committee). Her work has received funding from the NIH, CDC, WHO, Gates Foundation, and State of California.

Dr. Mosley is a board certified pediatrician at LPCH who specializes in the care of hospitalized patients. Dr. Mosley spent 8 years in the Alaskan bush communities caring for sick children. He is interested in promoting access to health care in the indigent population in the US and other countries. He is particularly interested in pediatric gastroenterology and malnutrition, children with severe neurological deficits and disability, emerging infectious diseases, and effects of poverty on childhood health. He serves as a member of the Pediatric Steering Committee and Oversight of Health Volunteers Overseas (HVOUSA.org), a nonprofit volunteer organization with a global reach. He is also working on various projects with WEEMA (WEEMA.org) in Kembata-Tambaro woreda in Ethiopia to develop and improve access to adequate medical care in the district. He is committed to medical education of students and residents.

Dr. Sarnquist has been researching prevention interventions for over 15 years. Her major area of interest is the implementation and evaluation of interventions to prevent gender-based violence and HIV. More She currently has projects in Kenya and DRC, and has worked in the U.S. as well as Zimbabwe, Peru, Mexico, and Albania. Dr. Sarnquist also teaches an undergraduate course entitled “Global Child Health”.

Dr. Wise is a health policy and outcomes researcher whose work has focused on children's health; health-outcomes disparities by race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status; the interaction of genetics and the environment as these factors influence child and maternal health; and the impact of medical technology on disparities in health outcomes. Dr. Wise has worked to improve healthcare practices and policies in developing countries. He is involved in child health projects targeting diseases such as tuberculosis and AIDS. He also travels each year to an indigenous village in Guatemala, where he teaches and provides care at the village clinic.